LETTER:Savage gerbils

From Mr Chris Moncrieff

Sir: I doubt whether Geraldine Tausig (letter, 30 May) would have been quite so rapturous about her "wonderful and therapeutic" gerbils if she, like me, had had the murderous fangs of one of these savage rodents embedded in her fingers for a full five minutes before it could be shaken off.

Ms Tausig writes: "They are ideal for anybody who is a little nervous of a first pet." Personally, after my experience, I would sooner keep an amiable boa constrictor in our front room.

Yours faithfully,

CHRIS MONCRIEFF

Woodford Green, Essex

30 May